From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
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Thank you for your invitation to be here.
Like you, I have been intensively engaged with the issue that has presented before us today in terms of the challenges facing our childcare sector.
I have the utmost respect for those that work day in and day out to look after our children. I know that for many this is a vocation. They are significant people in the lives of children and also in the lives of parents.
Placing your child in the care of someone else is a huge decision for parents. First and foremost they want their child to be safe and happy.
As Minister for Children, that is also my priority. All my decisions in relation to childcare are determined by what is best for children.
I accept that sometimes these decisions do not suit everyone but the rationale is, and always will, have children at its heart.
I think it is important in the context of what we are discussing today to take stock of where we are.
In the past five years there has been a 110% increase in capacity. The number of childcare places has more than doubled from 104,000 to 218,000.
Investment in childcare has increased by 141% - it is almost one and a half times what it was in 2015.
We have gone from one free pre-school year to two free pre-school years.
We opened the National Childcare Scheme four weeks ago tomorrow.
In these four short weeks, the parents of more than 20,000 children will have received childcare subsidies for the first time or significantly higher subsidies than a month ago.
To put this in perspective, if you take the life of a four year old child who is currently in ECCE – the world of childcare has changed beyond recognition since the day she was born.
This is good and positive progress. But I am the first person to say that more needs to be done.
We can all be proud of the achievements and I think Irish people can be assured that their money has been well spent by the State to start to address years of underinvestment in childcare.
I have repeatedly said that in order to change from one of the most expensive countries in the world to one of the best for childcare then we need to at least maintain and possibly intensify this rate of investment.
Through the National Childcare Scheme it is open to any future Minister and Government to increase the subsidies paid to parents. The NCS is built for the future.
With this progress comes challenges.
The doubling of capacity and the stronger regulation requires more inspections.
Those working in the Childcare sector have to achieve certain educational qualifications.
The doubling of capacity has led to a significant growth in the workforce and associated difficulties in getting suitably qualified childcare workers.
The introduction of necessary regulations requires childcare providers to undertake additional responsibilities including additional administrative work to demonstrate compliance.
Some childcare providers choose not to continue every year. For example in 2018, 78 closed their doors. However, 153 new childcare providers opened new services. This led to an increase of 2,200 childcare places that year and there were many other new places resulting from other measures. The average size of services has grown from 33 in 2015 to 47 in 2019.
2019 was a particularly onerous year for childcare providers due to a number of developments.
4,300 of them had to re-register with Tusla in order to stay on the Register and operate as childcare providers in 2020 and beyond. Whilst this was flagged from 2016, it still represented significant work. I am pleased that the CEO of Tusla confirmed that almost 100% of childcare providers submitted their applications for re-registration by the due date.
He has also confirmed that they are processing applications received after 12th December.
I would like to particularly acknowledge the pressures services have faced in 2019 and to acknowledge the pressure and stress that deadlines bring. I hear this clearly from the sector.
My department, Pobal and Tusla are going to try to address this in a meaningful way in 2020 and try to simplify and streamline procedures so that those in the sector are not over-burdened with administration.
To recognise how difficult this has been I have approved an additional, once-off Programme Support Payment to all providers which will be made in the coming days, that is December 2019.
This is in addition to the Programme Support Payment already given to providers this year.
We value those that work in our Childcare sector – perhaps they don’t always feel our appreciation, but I would like to assure them on behalf of the government that we do not take them for granted.
There are also challenges that have not yet been addressed.
Our childcare workers – significant people in the lives of children, parents and families – significant people in terms of keeping our economy working – are poorly paid.
I have given my support for a Sectoral Employment Order. I have made provision in Budget 2020 for a Sectoral Employment Order Support Fund.
Paying Childcare Workers a decent wage is important for them as individual workers.
It is also important for our children. It is important for maintaining consistency of care in the lives of children. It is important for the quality of our childcare services.
I hope that sufficient numbers of workers join a Union and make this a reality.
It is a key piece of unfinished business.
I would like to address a key issue effecting the Childcare Sector which has received much media attention in the past few days.
It relates to media reports and some commentary around internal Risk Rating documents from Tusla.
I know that the CEO of Tusla has clarified that the risk rating is used for the purpose of prioritising and scheduling over 4,300 services for inspection.
It is a risk based, internal, profiling system which is in line with a recommendation by the OECD.
I am aware that Tusla circulated the Committee members with his response to RTÉ Investigates on this matter.
I do not want to rehearse this again except to say that the Chief Social Worker in my department has confirmed that in using the term Risk Register in order to schedule inspections, Tusla is identifying a risk to themselves – to ensure that Tusla implement an inspection regime that is fit for purpose and provides most assurance across the sector.
She notes that “Regulatory bodies, in general, have two functions. The first is to register all centres for compliance purposes – this provides public assurance.
“The second function is to use its inspection resource proportionally to ensure inspectors are attending to those services which may have performance issues.
“To do so the regulatory body uses the information available to it intelligently to prioritise its inspection schedule.”
A service may have been profiled as red simply because it has not been inspected recently and should be prioritised for one. It may be a very good service.
I hope Members of the Committee find this further clarification by the Chief Social Worker helpful.
Over the course of the past year to date, there were three PQs tabled to my department in relation to insurance.
Three Parliamentary Questions out of over 1,500.
The cost of insurance for the childcare sector has come into strong focus in the past few weeks.
This has arisen following the withdrawal of an insurance provider from the Irish market and the confirmation that another could not be found.
It is undoubtedly causing distress to providers and worry to parents.
I acknowledge there are many providers who are facing increased insurance costs.
Until recently, there were two insurance underwriters offering insurance to the childcare sector in Ireland. On the 6th December, one of these, Ironshore, notified their 1,300 clients that they would be withdrawing from the market.
On 17th December Padraic Smith, the broker who had provided the Ironshore underwriting services, informed their customers that they had failed to get a new underwriter to take over their client base.
This leaves only one underwriter currently offering insurance to the sector, Allianz.
The government is limited in what it can do in this situation. It cannot compel a private business to remain in the market, nor can it directly intervene in the pricing of insurance offered to childcare providers.
However, officials in my department are working hard to find a way to support those services that have been impacted.
We have engaged with Allianz, whom I understand have confirmed that they will offer quotes to all but the most high risk services.
Allianz, through the broker Aracas, are willing to consider quotes for all effected services.
Quotes are being processed within 24 hours in the vast majority of cases. Some 1,100 quotes had been issued by mid-day today to previous Ironshore clients.
This leaves 200 providers who have not yet received quotes. I will receive an update on this tomorrow.
There may be a very small number of very high risk services which will not receive quotations.
The press has reported that some providers are reporting significant increases in premiums. I understand that the premiums charged by Ironshore were considerably lower than the market average, and this is leading to the increases.
I understand that the average cost of Allianz insurance for full-time childcare is €60 per year per child. The average cost for sessional services, such as ECCE, is €25 per year per child.
This equates to 0.5% to 0.75% of the turnover of a service.
I understand that the increase is causing difficulties for providers.
My department and the City and County childcare Committees are offering a number of supports for providers, including a case management system for services experiencing sustainability difficulties.
For community providers, who are one in four of all childcare providers, financial supports can be made available after an assessment through a process managed by the Childcare Committees and Pobal.
I would encourage Services to contact their local childcare committee to access a range of supports, including advice or business planning.
With regard to the issue of insurance, I am liaising with my colleague the Minister for Finance to consider a review of insurance in the childcare sector, as part of the ongoing independent review of costs in the sector.
Consequently, we need to make the market more attractive to both existing insurers and new entrants in order to increase competition, which in turn should lead to a reduction in pricing and an increase in capacity.
For the childcare sector, this includes compliance with regulations. Compliance helps to manage risk. Managing risk is important for children and should also make childcare facilities safer places.
I agree with the CEO of Tusla when he says that the Childcare Sector is largely compliant.
In my experience, we are lucky to have caring, compassionate champions for children working in our childcare sector.
They need and deserve our support. They have had a very tough year.
Exposures of bad practice in any sector affect all of those working in the sector. The impact of these exposures can cause stress, disappointment and pressure.
They are necessary to root-out the small number who should not be caring for children. But the majority work hard and diligently in the best interests of children.
I am glad that I am in a position to make a once off payment averaging €1,500 to providers to reflect their commitment.
This is under the Programme Support Payment I established in 2017 to recognise the administrative burden on providers. This support will come from existing resources available to me in 2019, and payments will be made by the 28th December.
The range of payments will be from small amounts right up to €26,000, for the very large providers, depending on the number of children being cared for.
This is a fast moving situation but I am committed to supporting the sector appropriately, and above all to protecting children.
ENDS